Posts Tagged: chips

Had dinner last week at TGI Fridays Melbourne Central, which is an American themed chain restaurant, I think I’ve been to one before quite a while back but don’t remember what I had. Anyway, we were there for a friend’s birthday, it was probably a good thing we didn’t mention it to any of the staff as they have a strange custom of a embarrassing birthday celebrations by announcing it to the whole restaurant and then singing and screaming some song. It took us a while to decide and even longer to order (pretty busy on a Saturday night), but Emmy went with the Scotch Fillet, and persuaded me to get the ribs (I probably would have just gone with a burger otherwise) because most reviews online say to get the ribs (Jack Daniels glaze).

TGI Fridays: Scotch Fillet

The wait for food wasn’t too long for a busy night, can’t remember how long, but it didn’t seem too bad, even though it was late and we were hungry. Emmy ordered the steak medium (because she isn’t supposed to eat the juice) and to everyone’s surprise it was actually, probably medium, even a little juicy (red) in parts, so it was actually cooked pretty well, it came with a side of the Jack Daniels glaze sauce. It doesn’t come with salad but does come with chips which I didn’t rate very much. But, the steak was cooked well, nice and tender, so thumbs up for that.

TGI Fridays: Ribs

My ribs, at 42$ are a bit over priced I think, they’re not as big as the ones I had at the grill place in Queenstown, come with a side of chips and coleslaw (lol), I’m not sure if I’d call the coleslaw a side, it was like a thimble size. As far as ribs go they were good, but to be honest, ribs don’t really do it for me, it’s just meat with a glaze on the bone. There’s a good amount of meat but overall, the flavour is not enough to justify the billing. Ribs as a shared dish makes more sense to me, as a main it doesn’t have enough by itself. I’d stick with steak or a burger if I ever went back.

I had a Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale to keep my thirst quenched, it was not bad, I’m enjoying these craft beers more and more lately. They didn’t have any darker beers so I just went with a pale ale which was pretty good.

I don’t think I would ever take Emmy to TGI Fridays by ourselves, maybe they only really shine on an actual Friday?

We finally had our end of basketball season dinner, and at our captain’s insistence it was at Mum’s Burger Kitchen. This is not the place I would normally frequent (due to location mainly) as it is in very remote Boronia :D, Which is pretty much a regional area of Victoria, way out in the eastern suburbs. This place has been getting a lot of publicity in recent months, as one of those favoured new burger joints, but also to some self promotion as well.

We’ll get straight to the business because that’s the type of food we’re talking about here. I had the Trent which is a pretty standard burger, patty, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, beetroot, bacon, and sauces. I didn’t take a picture of it but it was pretty tall for what is included. I got Oscar a kid’s meal (pictured) which was supposed to be a bao with chicken filling, but it looks more like he had a slider to me (I won’t complain because captain is friendly with the owners so we probably got the better deal anyway), a side of chips and a drink.

The chips were ample for a kids meal that’s for sure, and even though Oscar didn’t finish his slider, he had a good go, getting almost half way through and not complaining (that’s a very good effort for him). On the side we also had onion rings, more fries, some bigger chips (like wedges but not wedges), and even chicken wings (spicy). The sauces were good so the burgers had good flavour, and the sides (which were possibly on the house and overflowing) were greasy and crunchy.

I definitely rate them quite highly and would recommend them to anyone in the area (doubt that they need it, since the lines were out the door), it’s a bit cheaper than Grill’d so the value is better and I’d have a hard time choosing between them if location wasn’t an issue. Maybe they’ll open a franchise in Mount Waverley, I can dream. I wouldn’t go unless I was already in the area (we rarely venture out that way) as I’m not that into burgers, but for a greasy, fatty meal, I don’t think you’ll find much better. Oh, and if you care, service was perfectly good considering how busy they were.

This site has almost become a monthly food review blog, but any way, this time I went out with some of the Mighty Boys to eat some old fashioned steak (having missed out on the grand final with a disappointing semi-final loss). We’ve been to this place (in suburban Balwyn) before and it has a pretty good reputation for well cooked, quality steak. The owner, Stefan, grills the steak on his custom grill and has been doing so for what I would guess to be quite a long time. Good on him, still doing what he enjoys I bet, and doing a hell of a job of it I might add. Maybe surprisingly, or probably not, the menu does not have any wagyu or fancy stuff like that (is Angus fancy?). It’s a pretty simple menu, with all the regular cuts, New York cut on request, and you can order a three course menu consisting of entree (soup or sausage), steak, and dessert (apple strudel, black forest cake, or crepes), it also comes with a side of salad and chips. There is also some bread with butter to keep you occupied until the cooked food arrives.

Angus Scotch Fillet

I was just going to have the regular scotch fillet (my go-to cut), but everyone else went for Angus, so I had to follow as my social programming commands me to, and got the Angus Scotch. The sausage came out first (vegetable soup? yeah right… although, maybe next time) and it went down nice and fast with the aide of some tasty mustard. The garden salad is nothing special but it’s dressed well and provides enough salad-y side. The chips are standard steak chips but they’re always a treat with steak! The steak comes out, nicely grilled, and cooked to perfection (medium rare of course!), a beautiful tasty chunk of beef. Somehow I ate and sliced my scotch up so that the last piece left was just fat, well, I’m currently trying to add a bit of bulk so I just downed it for all the flavour it was. It wasn’t wagyu, but a perfectly cooked angus scotch is nothing to sneeze at.

I was pretty full at this point, but the dessert comes with the meal, so I downed the lemon crepes with aplomb, will try the walnut crepes next time on recommendation. Look, it’s a great steak and a definite recommendation because Stefan clearly knows his steak and how to cook it, also, on a Wednesday night I don’t reckon there’s much chance he’s going to make any mistakes due to being busy (which might be the case for some places), I can’t wait for next time :D. The restaurant is nothing to write home about but it’s a nice quiet place and you can see Stefan standing over the grill doing what he does best.

Is it just me, or do I start every post with, “It’s been a while” or something to that effect? Any way I’m here now, and I’m posting a food review of a French restaurant that I visited with emmy last week to celebrate our fifth anniversary of being together.

Croquettes

I’d read a couple of reviews of this place, and even though I’m not a massive fan of French cuisine, I had a bit of a hankering for steak and chips, and well, there is sort of only one main on the menu at Entrecote (South Yarra), and wouldn’t you know it, Steak Frites. Obviously we didn’t just have steak and chips, although the apparently limitless fries could make that a reasonable option (although you’d have to be a bit of a dick to do that), we did manage to fit in an entree, and also a dessert. We just went with a couple of recommendations for drinks, I had some red wine from Burgundy which was quite nice, and emmy went with a lemony cocktail, France 75 or something, no issues yet! We started with the “King Louis Boulettes” which are croquettes with spiced beef and some other substance (mashed potato-like) in them, the filling was so fluffy and the crunchy exterior very well done.

Following that up with the steak (porterhouse) and fries, with a side of leafy salad (radish, lettuce, and walnuts with vinaigrette). The salad was simple but very well executed, the crunchy lettuce and walnuts great with the dressing. The fries were straight outta Maccas, nothing wrong with that, maccas chips are great, maybe not as fried/crunchy as maccas but shoestring fries are hard to get wrong, and these were good.

Steak Frites

Leafy salad

My steak (medium rare) was a little dry and over cooked on one edge (fortunately the side I started on), but after a couple slices the tender section appeared and the rest was in my tummy in no time. The buttery herb sauce works on this steak and I had no complaints, also mixed in some French mustard which is always a winner with steak. I was full, but sacrificed what space remained in my stomach to help out emmy by finishing off the last couple pieces of her steak.

Profiteroles

We couldn’t leave without ordering dessert, everything looked great, but having had a great lemon tart only the day before, we decided on the chocolate profiteroles. Covered in dark chocolate, both melted and chips, and with a vanilla iced cream centre, these totally hit the spot, even though the spot was nothing but a tiny little speck of air that was being squished from all sides by steak and chips!

That’s it, we were done, could barely move, and ready to doze off into food coma heaven. There were a lot of things we didn’t try that I would’ve liked to, but it was probably a good thing we didn’t over indulge as we were both ready to explode/collapse/pass out (in that order) after a great meal. Chicken liver parfait, steak tartare, smoked salmon, escargot, maybe next time. I’d rate this one over Bistro Thierry, but we didn’t get steak there, and we also ordered too much and ate too much bread – Entrecote don’t serve bread, free or any, for a French restaurant that seems bizarre – so I’d be willing to give Bistro Thierry another try. This place? Put it at the top of the French restaurant list (that’s my list of two) and I’ll be happy to go back and enjoy some of the other dishes, they also do breakfast and lunch, hmmm.

Oh, and something that doesn’t usually rate a mention from Asians (or maybe it’s just me), the table service was very good, very attentive, cleaning up very quickly and getting our food out in reasonable time (we were to get kicked in two hours, so I guess they couldn’t dawdle too much). I’ll also take some time to mention the atmosphere and appearance as well since I’m here, nice, charming, romantic, although a little squeezy, stick to the iphone camera as the focus light of any decent camera might be a bit too much for anyone to bare ;).

Lame, lame, lame, these are such a ripoff of grain waves and they are not even close. We thought we’d try them as they were on sale, but

Grain waves

they suck. They’ve ripped off the design and the style of chips, but the taste, texture, and density of the chips is completely wrong. Grain waves are much crunchier and the flavour hit is much more concentrated, the woolworths chips are like prawn crackers in comparison. Say no to this ripoff!